Jack Fisk nominated for an Oscar

Look out, Sissy Spacek. You may not be the only Oscar winner living in your own house for much longer. Jack Fisk, a.k.a. Mr. Sissy Spacek, has won an Oscar nomination for Best Art Direction, for his work as the production designer on the turn-of-the-century California oil drama There Will Be Blood. It is Fisk's first nod from the Academy in his more than 30 years in the movie business.

Moviegoers may not know Fisk's name, but they undoubtedly know his work. As a production designer and art director to the likes of David Lynch, Brian De Palma, and Terrence Malick, he has created many a memorable movie image. After the high school horror classic Carrie launched both his and his wife's career, he worked on such films as The Thin Red Line, Mulholland Dr., The Straight Story and The New World.

There Will Be Blood is tied with the Coen Brothers' thriller No Country For Old Men for the most nominations this year with eight. Fisk's competition includes the teams from American Gangster, Atonement, The Golden Compass, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This bodes well for Fisk, in that There Will Be Blood is the only one of only two Best Picture nominees in the category, and the Art Direction Oscar has gone to a Best Picture nominee in seven of the last ten years.

Oscar's Charlottesville digs have not been limited to the Spacek-Fisk household over the years. In 1985, local documentary filmmaker Paul Wagner won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, Short Subject for his film The Stone Carvers.

–Photo from Reuters

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1 comment

stephanie mansfield January 22nd, 2008 | 2:59pm

This honor is long overdue. Jack Fisk is a brilliant art designer and no, he's not Mr. Sissy Spacek.While they met on the set of Badlands, the married pair has each worked constantly. Jack is simply the best in the business, so intelligent and gifted and deserves the Oscar.
He and Sissy do not run in Hollywood circles; they opted out for a horse famr in Virginia and have raised two wonderful daughters.
Goes to show: talent does win out in the end.